A spring in my step

I love spring. Even though it was a very mild winter here this year, and spring has been “here” for a good 6 weeks now, I still love it. Nothing beats getting out for a long walk along the local trails and seeing the trees starting to bud, knowing that soon they’ll be in full leaf. I get a kick out of checking my garden beds day after work to see how much taller the irises are, or if the clematis buds have started to grow into a vine.

But the best thing about this time of year? It’s not too hot and not too cold to get outside and really enjoy it. Mornings are briskly cool as I take the pup out for a jaunt around the neighbourhood, and evenings aren’t sweltering hot yet. My the end of May my evenings will be spent hanging out in shade in the backyard with my feet in a kiddie pool trying to keep cool. I’m going to have to re-jig my current exercise plans over the next little while to get my running and biking done in the morning and my swimming in the evening to make life bearable.

Score! As I was writing this my foam roller showed up at the door! I’ve never actually seen one in person so I am a little surprised at how big in diameter it is. The one I ordered is 6″ diameter and 18″ long. I did a little sample roll and I think I need to google some YouTube videos for instruction – I don’t think I’ve got the technique right…unless feeling awkward is part of the technique?

Today’s exercise plans are a morning swimming lesson to help my technique (already done) and a bike ride on some fairly flat, but kind of roll-y single track this afternoon. The swimming lesson went really well – the instructor gave me some good drills to try on my own that should really help my front crawl. The two that I think will really help me are the “shark-fin” and the “fingertip drag and reach”. The shark-fin goes like this: As your arm comes out of the water you drag your thumb along your body. It helps ensure your elbow is going straight up. The fingertip drag and reach is exactly that – as your arm comes out of the water you drag your fingertips along the top of the water to make sure you aren’t bringing your arm up too high, and then really focus on reaching forward as you enter the water so that your shoulders are in proper alignment. I also had her show me how to do a flip-turn. Those didn’t go so well, but it’s something I’d like to work on so I don’t hang out at the wall between lengths.

As for the biking, I’ve been doing some mini rides around the neighbourhood with padded shorts to try to get my butt toughened up, so hopefully it won’t be too painful. I also switched out my clipless pedals for flats…the clipless are great for road riding but were freaking me out on any remotely technical trails. I’ll switch back once I get my “trail legs” back, but for now I think the flats will do me just fine.